When Harry Met Sally's original ending was very, very different

When Harry Met Sally director Rob Reiner has revealed the film's original ending. Photo / Supplied

"I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts."

Harry Burns' (Billy Crystal) speech declaring his love to longtime BFF Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) in the 1989 rom-com When Harry Met Sally is one of the greatest moments in movie history.

But if director Rob Reiner's original plan for the ending had gone ahead, it would never have even happened.

"I was single for 10 years and making a mess of my personal life, in and out of relationships and not being able to make anything work," Reiner told PeopleTV .

"The first draft of the script — or the draft we were going to shoot — Harry and Sally don't get together. They meet each other years later and then walk separate ways."

Thankfully for fans of love, the director met his future wife Michelle during production on the movie, and it inspired him to change the ending to something a bit more romantic.

"We changed the ending and this is what we came up with," Reiner said, adding that Crystal had even written some of Harry's iconic speech.

"So that's how we decided to end the movie, that they do get back together.

The director has also revealed details about this famous scene. Photo / Supplied

In his autobiography, Still Foolin' 'Em, Crystal revealed new details about another famous scene from the movie — when Sally fakes an orgasm over lunch with Harry.

In order to show Meg Ryan what he wanted, wrote Crystal, Reiner sat opposite him and began shouting and banging the table in sexual ecstasy.

The scene, filmed at Katz's Deli on New York's Lower East Side, took all day to get in the can with Ryan performing countless fake orgasms before getting it right.

Crystal also revealed that it was him who came up with the movie's most famous line, which comes just after the fake orgasm.

An elderly woman at the next table — played by Reiner's mother, Estelle — turns to the waiter and says: "I'll have what she's having."